HOW TO EMULATE REAL INSTRUMENTS

Thanks to high-performance sample libraries such as The Score, it’s never been easier to piece together breathtakingly convincing faux instrumental tracks in your DAW. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and if you don’t know how a real violin, guitar, trumpet or harp is played by a real player, you risk making all sorts of unwitting mistakes in your emulative pursuits. Here are seven tips to help you on your way to playing and programming individual instrument and ensemble parts in MIDI that no one will be able to discern from the real deal.

1. GO AND SEE THE INSTRUMENT ‘IN THE WILD’

Although you’re not necessarily going to soak up a huge amount of literal technique unless you’re sitting very close to the performer, if you get the change to experience the instrument you want to emulate in the hands of a real life professional player, jump at it. Watch the way the player sits and moves with the instrument; hear the way the performance flows from note to note in terms of dynamics, tonality and vibrato; and appreciate the way it makes you feel emotionally and viscerally – allow yourself to be inspired, in other words. Take notes throughout the concert if you can.

2. CONSULT AN EXPERT

If you’re fortunate enough to have access to a player of the instrument in question (and assuming you can’t just record them rather than emulate it!), ask them to walk you through the applicable playing techniques and anything else they think you should know about it. This is obviously the ideal scenario when it comes to really getting to know the instrument inside out, and if you can get you sampled instrumental library in the same room at the same time, you could even explore together the ways in which said techniques translate to articulations, too. This will give great insight into how the mod wheel and other onboard performance systems might be best put to use in the pursuit of authenticity, as such things aren’t always readily apparent to those unacquainted with the real thing.

3. FIND VIDEOS OF THE INSTRUMENT ONLINE

Although going to concerts and spending time with a real player are clearly the ways to go if at all possible, when they’re just not an option, YouTube provides a highly effective alternative. Search for videos of your subject instrument with an emphasis on tuition as well as performance, and pay close attention to the way the players move their hands on it, with the aim of converting that into MIDI keyboard (including mod wheel) input for your sample-based library. Bear in mind, also, that you probably don’t need to know how to elicit every possible sound from the instrument, just those that are required for the composition you’re working on; so don’t feel that you have to drill right down into the minutiae of the more rarely called-on techniques that you might come across in your viewing.

4. DON’T GET CARRIED AWAY WITH ALL THOSE ARTICULATIONS

While sampled instruments of the struck and plucked variety (harp, piano, harpsichord, timpani, etc) won’t necessarily comprise more than one or two articulations due to the way they’re played, string, wind and brass libraries will offer far more options for modifying the character and tonality of the individual notes they can produce – legato, pizzicato, marcato, sul ponti and so on with strings, for example. Understanding how these articulations are exploited by real life musicians (through the analytical processes described above) and how they can be combined effectively is clearly central to successfully emulating any instrumental performance; but as well as getting a handle on their purely technical aspects, it’s also important to exercise taste and judgment with regard to their usage. Be sensitive to the ‘purpose’ of each articulation in your arsenal and its appropriateness for the track, and don’t be overly flamboyant with the more filigree ones just for the sake of it.

5. UNDERSTAND THE BROADER REMIT AND LIMITATIONS OF THE INSTRUMENT

When learning the ropes of your target instrument via the aforementioned observational approaches, as well as taking in the technical and stylistic execution of the individual notes played, you need to simultaneously garner an equally solid understanding of its more general angle, and the sorts of roles it serves on its own and in the context of an orchestra or smaller ensemble. The harp, for example, is known for its characteristic glissandi and arpeggios, so those are the kinds of things you should look to focus on; while the many textural, melodic and rhythmic possibilities presented by the violin each have their own compositional deployments and consequent learning curves.

Every instrument also has its own comfortable pitch range, which you’ll want to stay within or adapt the rest of the arrangement to if necessary. Timpani sound awkwardly flabby right down at the bottom of their tuning range, and the flute in its lowest octave is so soft that any heavy accompanying instrumentation may need to be dialled back at that point, to give but two examples.

6. PLAY THE INSTRUMENT YOURSELF

Getting hands-on with the real-world counterpart of your virtual instrument yourself might seem like a no-brainer when endeavouring to emulate it, but actually, if you don’t know how to play it correctly, that particular process won’t be hugely informative. Having said that, though, simply noodling around experimentally on a borrowed violin, guitar or trombone will raise your awareness of its general physicality and handling, and give you a degree of connection to it that certainly can’t do any harm.

7. MAKE SURE YOUR SAMPLED INSTRUMENT IS UP TO SCRATCH

Many Sonuscore libraries are well suited to the convincing emulation of acoustic instruments, but our flagship offering, The Score, is especially noteworthy. Packed with expressive, nuanced ensemble and solo instrumentation, taking in a wealth of articulations, and featuring various powerful performance and processing tools, The Score makes producing utterly authentic modern orchestral and hybrid soundtracks intuitive and fun.

Ronan Macdonald

Writer & Editor • Music Producer • Drummer

ABOUT THE WRITER: RONAN MACDONALD

A music and technology journalist of over 30 years’ professional experience, Ronan Macdonald began his career on UK drummer’s bible Rhythm, before moving to the world’s leading music software magazine, Computer Music, of which he was the editor for more than a decade. He’s also written for many other titles, including Guitarist, The Mix, Hip-Hop Connection and Mac Format, and edited several books, most notably the first edition of Billboard’s Home Recording Handbook. Today, Ronan contributes to Production Expert, Computer Music and MusicRadar.com and works as an editorial consultant and media producer for a broad range of music technology companies. Away from the day job, Ronan is a keen producer and drummer, with a particular passion for 90s hip-hop, jungle, breakbeat and jazz, a hard drive full of unfinished projects and a plugins folder that one day he honestly will get round to tidying up. He’s also the dep percussionist for seminal 80s/90s Italo-house outfit Black Box.

LISTEN TO THE DEMOS

LISTEN TO THE SNIPPETS